Professor back in Hong Kong court for retrial in yoga ball murder case

A former university professor is back in court for a retrial over the alleged murder of his wife and daughter with a gas-filled yoga ball nine years ago in Hong Kong. defendant.

A seven-member jury was convened at the High Court on Wednesday for the retrial of Malaysian Khaw Kim Sun, who allegedly released a lethal amount of carbon monoxide from a yoga ball in a yellow Mini Cooper, killing his wife Wong Siew Fing, 47 . and their second child Lily Khaw Li Ling, 16, on May 22, 2015.

In a rare move during his opening remarks, Deputy Judge Brian Keith revealed to the jury of four men and three women that former anesthetist Khaw had previously been convicted of murder, but the decision was overturned on appeal because he had not received a fair trial.

“I mentioned all this to you because some of you may have realized that you have heard about this case before, and I didn’t want you to be tempted to go online to see if this was indeed the case,” Keith said.

In a criminal retrial, jurors are often not informed of a previous trial before a verdict is reached, to avoid bias against the suspect.

The judge emphasized that the proceedings against Khaw would “start completely from scratch” and that the fact that he had previously been convicted was “completely irrelevant”.

Keith also urged the jury to avoid social media posts commenting on the case, which were “often written in inflammatory language and almost always by people who actually knew nothing about the case.”